Poe-Bird Neither Raven Nor Parson
If death should clip my wings before I wake,
my wrybill note will fade upon the air
and fate, unfulfilled, will languish where
I’ve pasted shadow-birds upon a lake
between two doubtful skies. Too late to remake
those shadows into forms that fit a cage
or set them free as each becomes of age.
What if I should wake before I die,
a waxwing on a lake of flaming sky,
will I escape, perish, fly into a rage?
Although I leave the cage, if timing’s wrong,
to free the bird may not inspire the song.
Then lyrebird, quail or peacock, must I wait
to be tuned by accident or plucked by fate.
Rohana McCormack received her BA and MA degrees from Duke University and studied poetry with Stanley Kunitz, Felix Stefanile, May Swenson and John Woods. She has won awards from Purdue University, Writer’s Digest, Lucidity 2005 International and 2006 Juried Contests. She has a new chapbook, Free Will, The Billiard King and Other Mad Dogmas (Pudding House Publications, 2007). Anthologies include Indiana Sesquicentennial Poets (Ball State University), Indiana Women Poets, edited by Alice Friman, Purdue Miscellany, Passagers #44, Contest Winners 2007, and Hymns to the Outrageous (Pudding House Publications, 2007).